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Lands of Darkness #1 up for Best Adventure!

Lands of Darkness #1: The Barrow Grounds is nominated for
Best Adventure in the 2009 Gen Con EN World RPG Awards
(aka the ENnies). Pick up your copy on sale at our on-line
store for $8 or the electronic version for $3 at
YourGamesNow.com. Voting takes place on-line July 24-
August 1 at the ENnies site:
www.ennie-awards.com

Mess with Your Players' Heads

While it would be great if players naturally wanted to be
drawn into the campaign, it rarely ever works out that way.
It takes a DM to consciously create an evolving world and
story that compel players to invest their attention, energy,
and creativity into the shared experience. This is much
easier said than done.

I try and accomplish this through the use of in-depth
verisimilitude, character driven plot-lines, and a well
developed setting. All of these things work well, but they
all take a lot of time, energy, and planning.

If you don't have a lot of extra time, or find yourself
already in mid-campaign and need a quick boost, I offer the
following few tips to get your players thinking about the
campaign.

The main thing to remember is that nothing draws in players
like curiosity.

1. The Unusual and the Odd

I like to add quite a few unusual locations and odd
circumstances to my campaigns. These are usually simple
things that may or may not prove to be of any significance
but still pique curiosity and interest.

There many things that can fit the bill on this technique:
objects that don't seem to fit in with their surroundings,
unusual rumors, and inexplicable locations all strike a
player's interest.

More examples I've used over the years:

An ancient monument of gigantic floating stones in the
middle of the woods.

An otherwise innocuous arm band that detected as magical,
glowed slightly, and could not be removed after it was put
on.

A group of mysterious strangers that gather every new
moon at the heroes' favorite inn to play in a private, back-
room dice game.

A mundane animal (such as a dog, cat, or raven) that is
frequently spotted by the party outside an inn, at the
city gates, on the road, near an ancient ruin, etc.

A crumpled-up piece of parchment that resembles a wanted
poster. There is a portrait of one of the heroes on the
poster.

A small shrine along an infrequently traveled trail
dedicated to some god or deity the heroes have never heard
of. On the ground in front of the shrine is a brass bowl of
semi-coagulated blood.

A bunch of dead cows in a field. They don't appear to be
injured, just dead.

When the heroes arrive in a new town and check into an
inn they've never been to before, the innkeeper tells
one of them he has a package for the character. The dust
covered box has been here for months, maybe years, and
contains a few mundane items.

Any of these things might turn out to be relevant to the
campaign, red herrings, or just odd occurrences that never
are explained. Regardless, they will all keep your players
guessing and interested in the world they are in.

2. Too Good to Be True

Every once and a while I like to have a patron offer the
heroes a reward that seems way out of proportion to the task
at hand. The players always expect there's more than meets
the eye and that's a classic story hook, but I like to let
things go off without a hitch.

This breeds wonderful paranoia. I've seen players go so
far as to quickly get rid of their treasure for far less
than it's worth for fear of it being cursed, or worse.

I also like to pull the old "Indiana Jones and the Golden
Idol" maneuver. Leave some great treasure in a place that
seems like an obvious trap and then let the heroes simply
walk off with it, no strings attached.

I stumbled upon this by accident recently when I realized I
was a few treasure parcels shy for the characters at their
level. It had been a few encounters since the heroes had
acquired anything valuable, so I decided they would come
across a few nice items in an out of the way part of the
ruined crypts they were exploring.

I described what appeared to be the site of a long-forgotten
battle. Skeletal remains and the signs of a fight were
everywhere. Amongst the battle-scarred remains I left three
magic items, a map, and some incidental monetary treasure.
The players spent nearly an hour in the room looking for
traps, an ambush, invisible chupercabras, ninjas, you name
it.

Eventually, the party decided to leave everything alone
without touching it because some sprit had generically
warned the party to "not disturb the halls of the dead"
earlier in the adventure. I don't like to argue with player
decisions, so they left without any treasure and I left with
a new method of messing with their heads.

This is another technique that gets players to think about
their surroundings and question the events and circumstances
of the adventure. Remember two important Dungeon Master
keywords: paranoia and curiosity. These are the words that
suck players into your world.

3. What's in a Name?

I've always been sure to give proper names to the NPCs the
characters interact with. Most of us remember to name
important people like nobles, guild-masters, and major
antagonists. We also tend to name people the characters
interact with frequently, such as a favorite inn-keeper,
blacksmith, or hireling. But that's where it ends.

In my current campaign, however, I've begun naming everyone.
I mean absolutely everyone; especially combat encounter NPCs
who won't live to see the end of the encounter. If you want
to see one of your minor encounters become a big deal to
your players, have one of the enemy shout out to another by
name.

The very first encounter in my current campaign featured a
group of goblins ambushing the heroes. It was a simple 1st
level, nothing-to-it encounter. During the attack one of
them yelled to Gratz, another goblin, by name.

The mood around the table changed instantly. Suddenly the
players were unsure of the encounter; characters hesitated.
Perception checks were made, defenders guarded against an
imagined counter-attack, and Gratz was approached much more
cautiously. By the time the encounter was over Gratz lay
dead and paranoia was alive and well.

The effect was unexpected and totally unplanned, but the
intensity of the encounter completely changed. The players
began asking questions and getting drawn into the goblins'
world. They were no longer simple goblins attacking
travelers.

The players wanted to know who they were and where they came
from. They wanted to know whether or not anyone else knew of
these goblins or recognized their banner. Almost by accident
the nature of the campaign changed. Since that time everyone
in our campaign has a name, even NPCs whose names might
never be heard.

As a final note, when the heroes in my campaign fought some
other goblins a couple of levels later, one of them attacked
yelling they had killed his brother Gratz. It was a great
moment at the table as I watched the players begin thinking
more in terms of cause-and-effect and the big picture,
instead of looking at the world as a random string of
encounters.

* * *

All of these techniques lose a little shock value as they
are used over time. But if you keep using them, your world
will become more vivid and real and the players will find
themselves more immersed in the campaign. That will add a
new level to your role-playing experience.

Let It Ride - A Technique For Entertaining Sessions

As gamemasters we have a responsibility to provide players
with the best experience possible. What does it mean to
provide a quality game? How can we as a group gain more
fulfillment out of our hobby?

To be a good GM you have to be an entertainer, which means
recognizing what your audience needs. While players often
voice what they think they want, what gives the players the
greatest enjoyment is achieving the fundamental need of all
roleplayers. This need is fulfilled only when you let go of
your game and "Let it Ride."

What every player truly wants is to feel as if they have
helped in the production of your story. If this need is met,
a player will be satisfied from a game session, even if
everything went wrong for that character.

This is different than having their characters central to
your story. All stories are centered around the players, but
not every story engages the players.

Engaging players is about making them want to be proactive
in a story. Players want to believe the story could not have
happened without their characters. When a player ends a
session, they yearn to walk away with a story of how their
character did something that changed the course of your
story.

The problem is how do you engage your players? A good
gamemaster is aware of the unvoiced wishes of their players.
These wants and desires are demonstrated in the actions of
the players and their corresponding characters.

These actions have the greatest potential for development
into an amazing plot device. In one section of the book
"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, he talks about how
improvisational actors make snap judgments to entertain. He
states they follow one rule, "accept everything."

In theater, the simple act of never refusing something
another actor says or does allows the troupe to keep the
conflict going and seem fresh.

In a role playing game your players are the actors. To allow
a game world to always seem fresh, alive and full of
conflict, accept everything your players do.

Accepting everything doesn't mean having no will or not
making decisions. It means letting the troupe have the
freedom to surprise you.

Real power comes from taking those surprise actions and
twisting them. Everything your characters do should be
followed by the question: "How can this go wrong?"

It is so fundamental to having a good game, I almost titled
this article with it. While accepting actions your players
make allows them to feel vital to the game, twisting their
decisions and turning the outcomes to your own will is the
driving force of your world. This in turn makes the players
feel like their actions have made an impact on the larger
world. And this makes them feel as if the world you have
created is a alive and growing.

This unpredictability is often destructive. When you accept
everything your players do you find they end up faster in
unscripted portions of your game, or worse. They threaten,
if not destroy, the continuity of your game story, world or
cosmology.

This is when the GM as an entertainer begins to shine. Let
the players destroy that continuity. It opens plot devices
we never would have thought of otherwise. Enjoy the chaos of
creation your players can create.

Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke said, "No
battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy." (Thanks.)
The same can be correctly said about all aspects of your
well-planned stories and players.

To gratify the last and greatest desire of the players, a GM
must be willing to forgo their own ego and let the players
drive. We provide the framework their car is in, but the
players are in control beyond that.

Sometimes players will drive the game right through the
continuity of your world. Sometimes accepting what your
players have done will destroy the finely designed cosmology
that took months to figure out. I say "great" because that
disruption causes tidal waves of conflict to erupt all over.
It forces you out of a seat of comfort and into a state of
growth.

All thought and work done before a game is worth sacrificing
if it will keep the story pace moving and your players
captivated.

So your players are gathered around the table. Bets have
been placed on the quality of the entertainment. The stakes
are high. And when the characters' actions threaten the
dice, remember, let it ride.

Strolen's Feature Article: Use of Constellations

The skies tell the tale of the living and the dead. The
honored and the worshiped. What do the stars tell in your
setting?

I feel constellations are an overlooked resource to add
flavor to a successful game that screams to be used.
Constellations are not just stars in the sky. They are the
story of myth and creation. The harbingers of prophesy.
Constellations were used to tell stories about gods and
warriors, beasts and monsters, and to associate the mortal
world with the heavens.

Prophecy
The most obvious reason to use constellations regularly is
the use of them for prophecies. This overlaps with the use
for quests and omens as well. Use a player's birth or
description, and tie it in with the rising of a
constellation to send them on fun-filled adventure that they
can blame on the gods.

Creation Myths
The myth of creation has been around since the dawn of
understanding of mankind and mortals. This is seen as more
of a religious aspect and might not see as much light in a
role playing setting, unless a member or members of the
group are religious or the setting has a high religious
flavor.

Omens
Very similar to prophecies, omens are used to tell grim
tales of the goings on of the world. Tales and signs of ill
and good omens can happen all the time under the signs and
faces of the constellations.

Just because it is an omen does not mean it is initially
bad. An omen of the coming of a savior of good will be
rejoiced at by an ill-treated populace. However, it bodes
ill for those in power.

Quests
Again very similar to the prophecy and omen section,
although changed a little bit to suit individual campaigns
instead of a broad stroke of a world. A sage or teller of
fortunes could tell of a godly quest that a person of a
particular birth and sign must complete. This can be helpful
to get the players on the track you wish them to be on.

Local Culture
Each culture could have differing views on the
constellations in the sky. This could bode ill for someone
who does not know a particular culture's beliefs regarding
the sky, and could be put in a bad way for inadvertently
disgracing their beliefs.

Reason for Harvest
As the title says, some cultures use the constellations to
determine when and where to plant crops, when to harvest
them and what kind to plant as determined by the
constellations and their position. Pretty simple really, and
not used often for role-playing.

Birthing Signs
One thing seldom used is the sign that one is born under. Is
it seen as good or bad to be born under the sign of the
thief? Would nobles hide the fact that their children were
born under the Dark Sister or the Hag if it were seen as an
ill Omen? Or is it good to be born under the sign of the
Warrior or the Moneylender?

Rituals
In many cults, groups, religions, and other fanatical or
misguided people, the stars are used as a guide them in
their summoning rituals. These rituals can be used for good
or evil.

For example, the summoning of a spirit, a demon, a powerful
being or, other uses, such as a ritual of protection, or of
longevity. Each one might only be possible when a certain
constellation is visible, perhaps even only during a certain
astrological event.

History of Constellations

Early cultures looked to the heavens and saw their gods
looking down on them, and they created the constellations to
put a face to their names. As time progressed, their heroes
and enemies because taking form as well, and in some cases,
taking the place of their once deific counterparts.

Some tell of individuals, while the whole tells a story.
It could be the story of life, or the story of a king.

Constellations are more than just a navigational tool used
by ships to travel the sightless oceans and not get lost.
The stories are both true and myth. In some cases, they are
a way for cultures to relate themselves to the world around
them and their gods. Different cultures have viewed the
constellations differently throughout the ages, but story
after story have been similar in the end.

The constellations can broken down into a few categories:

Major Constellations and Minor Constellations

Deities and Heroes

Mortals and Monsters

Major Constellations are seen all year and do not set below
the horizon. They are always seen at night and can be
counted on for reliable navigation while at sea.

Minor Constellations are seasonal. They seem to only
appear during certain times of the year or only during
certain celestial anomalies. These constellations are by no
means less important, they just do not have as much history
behind them, nor are they seen with as much appreciation as
their major counterparts.

The same can be done with deities and heroes. Deities are
seen all year round. They are the highest and lasting
images in the sky that never set and never change, while
the heroes come and go with the seasons.